A Bit of Parchment
by London Calling
Summary: Hermione discovers that there's more to divination than she previously thought.
1. Default Chapter

She sat staring at the offending bit of parchment for a few moments. Unsure of how to proceed. She needed a waste paper basket. A dumpster. A garbage disposal. Anything that might permanently remove it from her desk and from her life. Unfortunately none of the above options were available at the moment. The only thing large enough to rid her of her torment was the abnormally large nose of the potions master who was currently standing at the head of the classroom, proctoring the test she was currently supposed to be finishing.  
  
Hermione had dropped divination ages ago. What others (especially two of her roommates who shall remain nameless) had studied as both art and science she had dismissed out of hand. After all, who could determine the course of a person's life from soggy tea leaves and playing cards? She could never see what possible use could come of it. Her last test for the NEWTs had already been completed when Snape had dropped this bomb on her. Even though she had dropped the class after only completing a few weeks she still had to complete the divination section of the NEWT. The strangest thing was that there was only one question: What does the future hold?  
  
Hermione looked around her. Lavender and Parvati were pulling out tarot cards, shuffling frantically. She could practically hear the gears turning in Ron's head as he predicted Harry's death in a crystal ball. She had nothing. Not even a cup of tea to help her make a prediction.  
  
In desperation, she turned again to the front of the class room. She had hoped to see some hint of sympathy from Snape. Hoped that she could once again plead her case and be excused from this section of the test. When she looked up she was once again met with the cold stare she had seen earlier. There was no escape. She would just have to complete the test and hope that it didn't bring her average down too much.  
  
What did the future hold?  
  
She closed her eyes and searched desperately for an answer. Any answer. That's when she saw it.  
  
She saw Ron falling for what seemed to be forever. She saw Ginny sitting astride a dragon. She saw Draco Malfoy holding a skeletal hand with a black candle. And finally she saw Harry holding a great sphere of light that burned his hands. She saw him smile. That was the last thing she saw before she passed out. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. I bow to the genius that is Rowling. All hail the queen of the universe in which this story exists.  
  
Harry couldn't seem to get a hang of the crystal ball. He never had been able to (or any other manner of divination now that you mention it). Still, he had been hoping for some tiny spark of revelation when it came time for his NEWTs. More than anything he hated the thought of lying on what seemed to be such an important occasion. All of that propaganda about the importance of NEWTs that Hermione had been spouting since the first year must have sunk in at one point. He just couldn't bring himself to flat-out lie like he would have in class while he was taking this test.   
  
He was still caught up in his moral dilemma when it happened. Harry had been surprised, to say the least, when Hermione had not been dismissed from the divination NEWTs. She had dropped the class way back in the third year and had not been asked to sit for the divination OWLs. Still, when Snape had handed out the test he had taken no little pleasure in dropping one in front of Hermione Granger. He had smirked with a sort of satisfaction that Harry had thought was only reserved for when he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Throughout his years at Hogwarts Harry had learned some restraint when it came to dealing with Snape. For this reason alone he let his friend stand on her own when she made her case to the sadistic potions master. As Harry had expected, Hermione was not successful and she was forced to sit through this last test (as if any test, even divination, would be a problem for Hermione Granger).   
  
Soon after she gave up trying to get out of the test Harry returned to his own bit of parchment. It was then that he noticed something strange. His test was at least three feet of parchment. There where at least twenty questions on it ranging from the weather next week to how many children he would have. When he looked over to Hermione's desk he saw that she had a mere eight inched of parchment, most of which was blank. As far as he could tell she only had one question to answer. Harry had just noticed this when Hermione fell to the floor in a dead faint. 


	3. Chapter 3

Snape couldn't help but be annoyed as he carried the limp form of Hermione Granger to the hospital wing. The stupid girl. How could she have ignored her gift for so long? They had waited, year after year, for her to finally accept her place in the scheme of things. Of course, it had to take a test for her to finally realize her potential. How typical.  
  
None of this would have happened if it hadn't been for Professor Dumbledore. Trelawny had been reluctant (to say to least) to have another seer on the grounds of Hogwarts. Many of the other teachers, Snape included, were reluctant to believe in divination in the first place. Now, here he was. Carrying the greatest seer in many years through the drafty halls of an old castle. All because the silly girl wouldn't believe in her own gift in the first place. Snape didn't know if she had shown sense not to believe or if she was stupid not to trust her gut in the first place. Either way he would rather it wasn't him who did the carrying.  
  
She was mumbling something about a bright light and dragons. Snape knew it would be important later, given the girl's gifts, but he couldn't exactly drop her to grab a piece of parchment and a quill. He filed it away in his memory for later. All the better to tell Albus. It was his fault in the first place. Whoever heard of jogging a seer's talents with a test. The man was either a genius or a lunatic. The jury's still out on that one.  
  
Severus came sweeping into the hospital wing like Dracula on a bad hair day. He screamed for Poppy and was severely annoyed when she took more than ten seconds to appear.  
  
"What happened here? Did something blow up? Did a potion go wrong?" Poppy began spouting off questions at a rate that would leave Nascar to shame. By the fifth question Severus saw fit to interrupt.  
  
"Will you calm down! The girl is just a bit overdrawn from the stress of the NEWTs. Just have her up and running again soon. No harm done." With that he dropped the unconscious brunette on the nearest empty bed and made a quick retreat.  
  
Hermione was pale and drawn. If she had eaten in the past few days it certainly didn't show on her face now. She would have looked dead if it weren't for the sheen of sweat that covered her body. She was almost like plastic. One of those muggle dolls the first years carried around their first year away from home. Yet, she was cold to the touch. Practically an icicle. Poppy hadn't seen anything like this since Trelawny had been to the hospital wing the first time, and that was even before the silly old bat was on staff.  
  
Before she even had time to reflect on that first incident Ms. Granger was awake. She rose up with a start, nearly darting from the hospital wing before Poppy knew what was happening.  
  
"Where's Harry!" she tried to push Madam Pomfrey out of the way but failed. "I need to see Harry! He has to find the light! I could see it! Where is it now?!!" The girl struggled as Poppy tried to hold her down and calm her. Still she kept on screaming about a light. It was there she just couldn't find it. "It's here! He needs it! It's the only way!"  
  
No matter which way Poppy turned the girl seemed to turn and try the opposite way. She squirmed and writhed in a way that would make any fish proud, but Poppy still managed to hold her to the bed. It wasn't until Ron and Harry came bursting in the door that she calmed down a little.  
  
Before Poppy knew they were even in the room Ron was at Hermione's side holding her hand and calming her. "What did that git do? How did you end up in that test in the first place?" While Ron was spouting off about the injustices of the NEWTs and the minitry's joy in testing everyone in everything, Poppy took the opportunity to back off and watch the scene and reflect.  
  
Hermione Granger was worn out beyond all reason. She didn't even know which way to look or even what she was looking for. She looked as though she had just been hit by a truck and there was one best friend pretending for all the world that it was all about a test. And there was the other, looking like she had already been pronounced dead. 


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: I'm still unsure of the pairing I want to use in this fic. Please give feedback. I will decide from there.  
  
Albus Dumbledore sat staring at a small piece of parchment on his desk. Almost willing it to give him an answer. He had actually been waiting for well over seven years for an answer, ever since a small girl had first made her appearance on the enrollment for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Today, however, he was hoping for some concrete answers. Much to his chagrin, the parchment had shown the same few words since it had been created only a few days ago: What does the future hold. Today he had been hoping for some answers courtesy of the school's reluctant seer. One Hermione Granger.  
  
Albus had been hoping that the girl would stumble upon her talent for some years now. Unfortunately her muggle upbringing seemed to stand in her way. The girl was brought up to understand and trust only logic and divination had nothing whatsoever to do with logic. For years he had hoped that the girl would bring him some insight into the war against the dark wizard Voldemort. Though she had done more than her fair share in helping to deal with the threat, she had yet to come to him with the knowledge he had been seeking for these years past.   
  
Hermione Granger had entered the enrollment of Hogwarts well before her first birthday. She had performed the usual tricks of those who entered the hallowed halls of the school by that point: she had disappeared various obnoxious cousins, turned many relatives albino, and even manifested a water spout in the middle of Brighton (which is no small trick). It was not until her second birthday that her true fate in Hogwarts was foretold. It was at this point that she predicted every single one of her birthday presents, both welcome and unwelcome. At this point she gained special notoriety with Albus Dumbledore. And yet, with each passing year at Hogwarts, she had yet to use her gift. It was for this reason that Dumbledore decided to use the NEWTs as a way to access her powers.  
  
He was still staring intently at the scrap of parchment when Professor Snape came barreling into the room.  
  
"How could you do this to us?!!" Snape crossed the room in a flash an in no time at all was standing flush with the desk at which Albus was sitting. "She's supposed to be the best seer to come along in millennia and you let her continue on with no training whatsoever! I just had to carry the girl to the infirmary and nothing she was saying made any sense at all. We waited years for this! Some overachieving teenager babbling about bits of light! I never thought you were mad but now I'm starting to believe it."  
  
Albus pushed his chair back from his desk but waited until Snape had slowed a bit in his pacing to stand and make his case. The man always reacted far too quickly whenever anything concerning the war was concerned.  
  
When Snape finally calmed his temper to a slow boil Albus saw fit to stand and address him. "Calm yourself, my friend. The girl was not ready to accept her gifts until now."  
  
"You call this ready? You had to put a pop quiz in front of her in order to jog her gifts! We could have used her years ago. Before He-who-must-not-be-named had even risen again. We might have known of his plans then. Still you waited! And what now? Even now she cannot face her own gifts. She's in the hospital wing!"  
  
"But at least now she is old enough to understand her gift. Even Harry Potter took years to understand his place in prophecy. At least this way we managed to keep her unknown to Voldemort."  
  
"Unknown my foot. He's known her name since her first year here."  
  
"But only as an ally of Harry. Never as what she truly is." Severus had seemed to gather steam from the moment he stepped inside the office. This small deterrent did nothing to slow him down.  
  
"That does not matter. She is still a target. Even if he does not know what she is she is in danger. You know that as well as I. I will not allow all of our hopes to be crushed because some little girl is too weak to carry them."  
  
"She is not as weak as she seems. She has survived more than many of our greatest allies. Who is with her now?"  
  
"Potter and Weasley. We should probably separate them before they hear too much." Snape finally calmed at the change in subject. It seemed that his rage had found a new victim. While Granger could not be blamed for succumbing to the pressure of her visions, at least Potter and Weasley could be blamed for being present for the event.  
  
"No." Snape seemed to deflate at the word. "Anything that they hear might be used later. Miss Granger might be incapacitated for quite a while and any bit of information that we come across might be useful. She will be more likely to tell them what she sees than to tell anyone else. Leave them where they are."  
  
Finally Snape decided to find a seat. There was no way that Albus would ban Potter and Weasley from the bedside of Miss Granger and it was obvious that there was precious little he could do to make anyone's life difficult from here on out. He resigned himself to the fact and made ready to do some thing he would doubtless find unpleasant.  
  
"Would you please return to the infirmary and tell the boys that I would like to know anything that Miss Granger says both when she in conscious and when she is not." And there was the unpleasant task. 


End file.
